Lofoten 25 November-02 December 2008 on board S/V Noorderlicht The Noorderlicht was originally built in 1910, in Flensburg. For most of her life she served as a light vessel on the Baltic. Then, in 1991 the present owners purchased the ship and re-rigged and re-fitted her thoroughly, according to the rules of ‘Register Holland’. Noorderlicht is 46 metres long and 6.5 metres breadth, a well-balanced, two- masted schooner rig that is able to sail all seas. With: Captain: Ted Broeckhuyzen (Netherlands) First mate: Renske Ritzema (Netherlands) Chef: Sonja Berkel (Niederlande) Guide: Rolf Stange (Germany) And 20 brave polar explorers from Austria, France, Latvia, The Netherlands, Russia, Switzerland and The United Kingdom 25 November 2008 – Lødingen Position at 1700: 68°24’N /16°E. Calm, gentle snowfall, 1°C he first bit of sub-arctic soil that we set our feet on was the the runway of the little airport of Evenes near Harstad, north of Narvik, the largest town in the area. A local bus took us Tto Lødingen, a small village with a harbour at a place where several large fjords met. We saw two high masts proudly sticking up into the cold air, and soon we went on board the schooner Noorderlicht , which would be our home for the next week to come. We had a good look around – everything on board the Noorderlicht seemed to breathe a spirit of adventure and tradition, but was very purpose-serving at the same time. We moved into our cabins, stored our luggage away and then met with the friendly crew. Captain Ted and Rolf welcomed us once again, introduced the ship and her crew, gave us some information about life on board and about some important safety issues. Sonja soon disappeared into the galley to prepare dinner, while Renske gave us a briefing about safety procedures in case desaster would strike, but we were confident it wouldn't. Finally it was time to try what our chef Sonja had prepared in her little gally. We realised soon that the mealtimes were really something to look forward to, three times every day. In the meantime, we sailed out into Isfjord. Our sub- arctic adventure was about to begin! We spent a calm night in the harbour of Lødingen, while snowfall calmly covered our ship with a white, soft insulation layer. A true sub-arctic journey is just about to start! 2 26 November 2008 – Ofoten Fjord, Vestfjord, Skrova Position at 0800: 68°24’N /16°E. Gentle snowfall, 0°C he day started with a Noorderlicht -style breakfast, before the firealarm was sounded – neither the engine room nor lunch were going up in flames and smoke, it was only an Texercise, and out on deck we were met by our first mate Renske who gave us some more instructions and information about the ship. Dressed with every warm layer we possibly could, we spent the morning on deck, as the Noorderlicht worked her way against a light southwesterly breeze, not much at all, but enough to slow us down a bit on our way through the wide fjord called Ofoten and into the even wider Vestfjord. It did not take long until sharp eyes spotted the first eagles. The area seemed to have a good population, as there would be many more sightings during the next days. But the hope that most of us had secretly kept, viewing Orcas, remained wishful thinking, at least for the moment. The large herring swarms that attract the Orcas had obviously not (yet?) reached the area, and not a single fluke came into view. In the later afternoon, we entered a sheltered little harbour on the west side of the small island of Skrova. Soon, we were alongside and all of us, including those who had found out that the human body was originally designed for solid ground, were up and about to go for a little walk. We decided to have a look at the largest settlement of the area – an easy choice as there was only one village on the island – and soon found out that there was no risk of getting lost. But the charme of such a small, north-Norwegian fishing village, located on a small island that could only reached by boat, with a little harbour and its many small, colourfully painted, wooded houses, all covered with snow and under a sky with countless stars, cannot be described – you have to have seen it yourself! After dinner, things got even better as the first northern light of our voyage was seen – weak, but clearly identifiable. Rolf took the hint and invited us down to the Noorderlicht university to give us an introduction to this fascinating phenomenon, which had been high on the wishlist for this trip for many of us. After an explanation of the physics, he also told us about some of the myths and legends that people of the northern countries had told for many generations to explain and interprete this mysterious glow on the polar winter sky. 27 November 2008 – Lofoten: Skrova, Henningsvær Position at 0800: 68°10’N /14°40’E. Some snowfall, gentle breeze from northeast, -2°C. he plan for the morning was to cross the island of Skrova and to Tclimb it's highest mountain. Soon after breakfast, we went to business, and at 0900 we were ready for our adventure. Walking over two small bridges – the village was actually located on two small skerries just off the "main island" of Skrova – we followed the road and then a snow-covered path towards the eastern side of the island. Other people cross Greenland or Antarctica, we crossee Skrova – just don't tell anybody at home that there is a slight difference regarding the sizes of these places, and it'll sound just as impressive! After less than one hour, we had reached a lovely little bay with a sand beach and some near-by, deserted houses – at a different season with slightly more attractive temperatures, many of us would certainly have ventured on a swim – to be greeted by a pair of eagles that were circling in the air above us. What a view! We also took the opportunity to arrange a group photo, before we 3 turned around to start the second part of the adventure, which was an attempt to climb "Skrovahøgda" (Mount Skrova), the summit of which was located at 258 or 281 m above sea level, depending on which map one was using. We agreed on 2800 decimeters. The track took us up and down some rocky hills and the first ones in the row burnt some serious calories while creating a path in the deep snow. After a while, we got the the place that allowed to ascend the summit, a steep, rocky slope, but some fixed ropes made it clear where Ascending Skrovahøgda: hard work in deep snow … to go and easy and safe to ascend. The view from the top was certainly worth the effort: Ofoten Fjord, where we had come from yesterday, in the east, the large and open Vestfjord to the south, "Lofotveggen", the "Lofoten wall" (referring to the mountain range that appears as a wall as you approach from the distance with a ship) in the west and the large, mountaineous island of Hinnøya in the north. Skrova itself with several small, adjacent rocky skerries, shallow bays with green water and the little village was just as scenic. The sky was mostly clear despite this … but the view is certainly worth all of it! morning's snowfall, and the colours were amazing. We did not miss to put our names down into the guestbook – to our great disappointment, we had to realize that we were not the first ones to climb this mountain – before we started the way down again, as it was quite cold in the breeze. We were all back on board just in time for a well-deserved lunch, while the Noorderlicht already left the harbour to set course out into Vestfjord. Our next destination was Henningsvær on Austvågøya (Lofoten), but Ted decided to take advantage of the gentle Sailing sub-arctic waters in the polar night breeze – excellent sailing requires knowledge and experience! 4 conditions, so soon after lunch, the sails went up into the wind and we turned the bow into Vestfjord, also of course hoping to find some exciting marine wildlife. Only when the sunlight faded, we finally set course due east to Henningsvær, where we arrived shortly before dinner. After dinner, we went for a short walk to explore the village, which for centuries had been one of the most important fishing places in the region. Located on several small islands just off the large island of Austvågøya, Henningsvær is now famous for its scenic appereance with its many small, colourful wooden houses. In more recent years, a research institution called "Ocean Sounds" had been opened, and Rolf had arranged a presentation for us. At 2000, we were welcomed by a German lady called Heike who had chosen to settle down there and who introduced us with stunning images to the marine wildlife of the area. Her research was focussed on acoustic communication of Orcas and she could tell us that the complexity of her research object was not far from that of human language. The presentation was highly interesting, but unfortunately Heike could not make us very optimistic regarding our chances to see Orcas during the next days: not only that the numbers of Orcas visiting these waters had decreased during recent years, but they had also changed their behaviour.